Did 'Man of Steel' Feature a CGI Cameo by Christopher Reeve?

Look! Up on the screen! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's...hey, is that Christopher Reeve in 'Man of Steel'?

Nobody from the 'Man of Steel' creative team is saying anything yet, but alert viewers have pointed out that for a few fleeting frames, it looks like the face of current Superman Henry Cavill morphs into Reeve's. It's extremely subtle, and quick enough to be inconclusive, but it's also easy to see...something there.

Of course, as Uproxx points out, Cavill and Reeve were both cast as Superman partly because they looked the part, so even though they don't look exactly alike, neither are they totally dissimilar. It could just be a freaky optical illusion.

On the other hand, 'Man of Steel' director Zack Snyder is a meticulous visual stylist, and there's certainly no shortage of CGI in the movie, which owes a heavy narrative debt to the first couple of 'Superman' films Reeve worked on in the '70s; it seems like it would have been a relatively simple -- and sweet -- thing to do this as a tribute to the actor, who passed away in 2004 after suffering paralysis following a horse-riding accident in 1995.

Tip of the hat or trick of the eye? We're still not sure. But either way, it serves as a reminder that for a lot of people, Reeve will always be the definitive cinematic Man of Steel.